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Thompson

Publications and source records attributed to Thompson.

2 recordsLinked to original sources

STEREO/EUVI Event Catalog 2006-2012

We generated an event catalog with an automated detection algorithm based on the entire EUVI image database observed with the two Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory STEREO-A and -B spacecraft over the first six years of the mission (2006\,--\,2012). The event catalog includes the heliographic positions of some 20\,000 EUV events, transformed from spacecraft coordinates to Earth coordinates, and information on associated GOES flare events (down to the level of GOES A5-class flares). The 304 \ang\ wavelength turns out to be the most efficient channel for flare detection (79\,%), while the 171 \ang\ (4\,%), 195 \ang\ (10\,%), and the 284 \ang\ channel (7\,%) retrieve substantially fewer flare events, partially due to the suppressing effect of EUV dimming, and partially due to the lower cadence in the later years of the mission. Due to the Sun-circling orbits of STEREO-A and -B, a large number of flares have been detected on the farside of the Sun, invisible from Earth, or seen as partially occulted events. The statistical size distributions of EUV peak fluxes (with a power-law slope of $\alpha_P = 2.5\pm0.2$) and event durations (with a power-law slope of $\alpha_T=2.4\pm0.3$) are found to be consistent with the fractal-diffusive self-organized criticality model. The EUVI event catalog is available on-line \url{http://secchi.lmsal.com/EUVI/euvi__autodetection/euvi__events.txt} and may serve as a comprehensive tool to identify stereoscopically observed flare events for 3D reconstruction and to study occulted flare events.

astro-ph.SR

Relativistic MHD Winds from Rotating Neutron Stars

We solve the time-dependent dynamics of axisymmetric, general relativistic MHD winds from rotating neutron stars. The mass loss rate is obtained self consistently as a solution of the MHD equations, subject to a finite thermal pressure at the stellar surface. Conditions are chosen to be representative of the neutrino driven phase in newly born magnetars, which have been considered as a possible engine for GRBs. We compute the angular momentum and energy losses as a function of $\sigma$ and compare them with the analytic expectation from the classical theory of pulsar winds. We observe the convergence to the force-free limit in the energy loss and we study the evolution of the closed zone for increasing magnetization. Results also show that the dipolar magnetic field and the presence of a closed zone do not modify significantly the acceleration and collimation properties of the wind.

astro-ph